


At Last

by Sterling_Jay



Series: Leap of Faith [3]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Future Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor - Freeform, I'll add more tags as i go, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, everything's made up and the canon doesn't matter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-08 17:54:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14110836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sterling_Jay/pseuds/Sterling_Jay
Summary: They're trying to work things out.





	1. Chapter 1

“You’re freaking out about her coming back to game night, aren’t you,” Alex asked, snagging a water bottle from Kara’s fridge.

“I am _not_ ,” Kara replied indignantly, flitting around the apartment at superspeed.

“Then why are you cleaning your apartment at Mach 2?”

Kara jolted to a stop, glaring at her.

“I’m _allowed_ to be nervous. Wasn’t that your whole speech to me a few months ago? I’m allowed to feel…whatever?”

“You are,” Alex agreed. “But I’m kind of afraid you’re going to wear out your floor if you keep running around like that.” She pointed behind Kara to the already noticeable grooves she’d had worn in the floor, and Kara groaned.

“She’s still your best friend, right?”

“ _Yes_! But I’m just,” she wrapped an arm around herself and shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know, Alex. We were best friends, and then best friends who barely spoke because it was awkward, and we’re barely getting back into having lunch together, texting each other more often… I don’t remember the last time we had a movie night, or we visited each other ‘just because’,” she said wistfully. “So tonight,” she hit her hand against the kitchen island, “has to be perfect. I want her to go home tonight knowing that, no matter what, she is my best friend, and I want her in my life.”

“I can tell you for a fact that she already knows. She misses you too. You two will figure it out.”

“I’m pretty sure you’ve been saying that since she turned me down,” she grumbled, sighing heavily when Alex wrapped her arms around her in a warm hug.

“Because you will. Eventually.”

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**_A. Danvers:_ ** _ur coming to game night 2night, right?_

 **_Lena:_ ** _Sometimes I wonder why I ever gave you my number. It’s more effort to text like that, and yet you still do it._

 **_A. Danvers:_ ** _srsly. Kara wants to hang out w/u_

 **_Lena:_ ** _Of course I’ll be there. I’m just_

_Nervous._

**_A. Danvers:_ ** _so is she. itll be fine_

 **_Lena:_ ** _If it’s not, I’ll blame you._

* * *

“Oh Rao, it’s her.” Kara stared at the door nervously, eyes flicking between it, and Winn and James in the living room. “The guys look like they need drink refills, I’ll just take care of that.”

Alex rolled her eyes as Kara ran to the living room to replace Winn and James’ still-full water bottles and opened the door for Lena.

“My sister is a dork and nervous about seeing you,” she muttered dryly, ushering Lena in. “Hi.”

“At least I’m not the only one,” she laughed. “Hi.”

“Lena!” Winn jogged over to her, smiling, arms wide open for a hug. “It feels like I haven’t seen you in forever!”

“We saw each other last week at that tech conference,” she laughed, hugging him briefly.

“ _Yeah_ , but that was business stuff! This is just for fun.”

“He’s not wrong,” James said, walking up more sedately, patting her on the shoulder. “I think the last time I heard from you was when CatCo was covering LCorp’s ‘latest and greatest’ breakthrough.”

“I’ve just been,” she shared a glance with Kara, “busy, lately.” She walked towards her, giving a small smile. “Hello.”

“Hey, hi! Lena! How, um,” she tried to adjust her glasses, forgetting they weren’t on and poking herself in the forehead. “ _ow_. How are you?”

“Good, good.” She nodded, trying not to scowl at Alex’s quiet laugh behind her, and the guys’ knowing smiles beside her. She reached out her arms for a hug and Kara blushed. “Oh. Did you- do we not…?”

“No, it’s okay-” Kara shot forward to hug her, Lena’s arms halfway pinned to her sides. “I, uh,” she laughed and let her go to fidget with her hands, “sorry.”

“Okay you two, let’s give them a minute,” Alex said, dragging James and Winn back to the living room.

 “Sorry,” they both said at once, laughing as they did.

“Okay,” Lena said, running her hand through her hair, “you first.”

“I’m sorry, this is,” she laughed, “so awkward, isn’t it?”

“A bit,” Lena agreed. “But, it’s worth it for us to hang out again. I’ve missed you recently.”

“I missed you too. I’m sorry that I made it weird-” She stared at Lena’s hand suddenly holding hers.

“You didn’t, but, could we talk about this after game night? I’m pretty sure we’ve got some eavesdroppers.” They both looked at the suddenly overly-casual group standing in the living room, all of them studiously looking away from the front door.

“Yeah, I think we can do that.”

* * *

“Hey, using powers during game night is cheating!” Winn put his hand above the tower, blocking Kara from setting the brick down.

“It’s just jenga!”

“And you just used super speed to pull the brick out to keep it from falling!”

“It’s not cheating!”

“Cheating,” James agreed.

“ _Definitely_ cheating,” Alex said.

“Lena?”

“I’m going to have to agree with majority opinion here, Kara- super speed is cheating.”

“ _Fine_ ,” she pouted, pushing the brick back in.

“Human-speed only,” Winn warned as she went for the next block. “I think she should put her glasses back on too, how do we know she’s not using her x-ray vision to pick out loose bricks?”

Kara scoffed, everyone else trading grins.

“I’m just that good,” she said, her own smile falling as the tower toppled over. “Or not…”

* * *

“Hey Kara, do you want to try that super speed again right now,” James asked, nudging Kara’s shoulder with his own as he raced ahead of her on Mario Kart.

“Ha ha,” she said sarcastically, steering herself into an item block and immediately launching the green shell into him.

“The last time she tried it,” Winn told Lena, “she ended up pushing a button through the controller and then snapped it in half.”

Lena snorted, sending Kara an apologetic smile when she looked at her.

“That’s why you shouldn’t try to cheat, darling.”

Kara blushed, quickly turning back to the screen.

* * *

“I believe Monopoly was next on our to-play list,” Lena said, holding up the box.

“No- nope, not happening,” James said. “She has an unfair advantage.”

“Everyone versus Ms. CEO,” Winn asked, shrugging at everyone else’s questioning looks. “Might make it a little easier on the rest of us.”

“Lena and Kara versus the three of us,” Alex negotiated. “Best player plus worst player.”

“I’m not that bad at Monopoly,” Kara objected.

“You traded me three railroads for one pot sticker the last time we played,” James said. “You kind of are.”

“Was that the time she gave me both of the utilities when I promised to take her a cinnamon roll the next day,” Winn asked.

“ _And_ the time she gave me her last $500 for the last of the ice cream.”

They all turned to Lena.

“Don’t look at me, the last time I played, I lent her half of my money and ended up bankrupt before she did.” She frowned. “Still not sure how….”

“She just has to pout at you,” Winn laughed, not noticing both women blush and look away. Alex elbowed him and he shrugged apologetically.

“So,” James held up the game, “are we playing or not?”

“Only if I get to be the cat,” Kara said, snatching the piece from the box.

* * *

“So,” Kara began as she shut the door. Alex had rushed the guys out after Monopoly had ended (everyone but Winn quickly bankrupted by the railroad and utilities), giving them both an encouraging smile.

“So,” Lena agreed. “Tonight was fun.”

“Yeah, it was. I’m sorry,” she tugged at her sleeve, “if it was a bit awkward there at the beginning. I didn’t want to- it’s just a bit weird now, after-”

“Kara,” she said gently. “Can you sit?” She patted the couch beside her, moving to take Kara’s hand before reconsidering. “I know we’re still trying to, I don’t know, ‘figure things out’, but anything we did before, I’m still okay with. I don’t want to treat you any differently than before. Or for you to treat _me_ any differently than before. I’m still okay with hugs and movie nights…You’re still my best friend.” This time she did take Kara’s hand, her thumb gently stroking along the back.

“I’m,” Kara squeezed her hand lightly before pulling it back, giving Lena an apologetic look, “I’m not. Or,” she rolled her eyes, “I’m okay with hugs and movie nights, but I don’t think we should still, that _I_ should still…” She sighed and closed her eyes. “Okay. Alex says we need to be honest with each other, right?”

“Yes, but I’d hope you’d be honest with me even without Alex’s say-so.” She crossed her arms and leaned back into the arm of the couch, waiting for Kara to explain.

“I think,” Kara grimaced, “I might have treated you more like a girlfriend, than a best friend, before. Without trying to! I didn’t mean to, and a lot of the stuff that we did kind of has overlap between the two, and it’s just a matter of degrees, but,” she shrugged helplessly.

“I don’t understand. Treated me like a girlfriend. How? Friends have meals together. Watch movies together- you and Winn watch Star Trek together all the time, you and James go to lunch at CatCo…We _all_ just had game night together!”

“But when Winn and I have movie nights, I don’t end up curled up next to him at the end of the movie. We don’t even share a blanket if one of us gets cold. And James and I don’t walk arm-in-arm to the restaurants, or hold hands on the way there.” She shrugged again, sadly this time. “And maybe, if I didn’t have a crush on you, that stuff would be okay. But I _do_ , and when I thought about us doing all of that stuff again, doing everything we used to, exactly the same, it made me feel…dirty.”

“Dirty,” Lena repeated, looking hurt.

“Not because of you,” Kara reassured her, waving her hands. “I would just feel like I was taking advantage of you.” She looked down at her lap, again playing with her sleeves. “The line between ‘friendship’ and ‘dating’ is blurry here on Earth, and it makes it so _complicated_! Everyone always says you should date your best friend, and that ‘no one knows you better’ than your best friend. And so we do those things, like the flowers and napping together, and we fall asleep talking to each other some nights, and I just,” she sighed, “It feels like we’re together, without actually dating.”

“So, what are you saying here?”

“That we might need some boundaries now. I don’t want to be,” she laughed at herself, “ _pining_ for you, when you’re right beside me, just because you’re sleeping over or something. I don’t want to pretend in my head that we’re together, when I know we’re not.”

Lena wrapped her arms around herself, her back straightening.

“So just because I said no to you, things can’t be the same anymore? We can’t still be friends the way we used to be?”

“Lena, it’s not like that.” She reached out to her, pulling back when Lena moved away from her. “It’s not the way you’re making it sound. I don’t want to pull away from you, or change the way we spend time together, but I don’t want to keep, I don’t know, _falling for you_ , when I already know that I don’t have a chance.”

Lena’s eyes went soft. “You were falling for me?”

“‘ _Were_ ’,” Kara laughed sadly. “I still am. I, um, gosh this is hard to talk about,” she said, covering her blush, “you’re amazing, you know? You’re my best friend. You’re probably the smartest person I know- a literal genius- and you always work so hard to help people. You always get back up when people try to knock you down, and you come back stronger than ever. You’re a badass, I mean, all the times that you’ve helped me, or the DEO, sometimes without all the details, or even knowing that you could get hurt? But at the same time, you’re probably the softest, kindest person I know. You care so much, and you’re always there for me when I need you, even when you’ve got a million other things on your plate. You inspire me. How could I _not_ fall for you?”

“That’s,” she swallowed hard, “probably the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me.” She moved across the couch towards Kara, tentatively setting her hand on Kara’s knee. “Is this okay,” she asked quietly. Kara gave a short, sharp nod, laying her warm hand over Lena’s.

“You know what the Luthors are like.” Her free hand clenched beside her. “Lillian has always been cold, aloof. Resentful of my general existence.” She watched as Kara’s thumb brushed comfortingly over her hand. “Lionel was kind, but distant. Between his work and my boarding school, I’d hardly see him outside of the holidays. And Lex,” she shook her head. “He was the best brother I could have, while he was around. Before,” she snorted, “before _everything_ in Metropolis. Even so, we didn’t, we weren’t…” She shook her head.

“Strong emotions were verboten. Even when Lillian was furious, she would hide it behind a mask. She’d never raise her voice, she’d never yell…but you could see it. The anger. I remember crying twice at the Luthor mansion. _Only_ twice. Once when I realized that my mother was gone, that I’d never see her again, and again when Lionel died. Lillian’s only response was to shut me in my room with the warning to not come out until I’d found my composure and cleaned myself up. Both Lex and Lillian were stoic, after Lionel passed. I don’t think I saw either of them shed a tear afterwards.

And at the same time, I’m not sure I ever saw any of them happy. ‘Exuberance’ was contained in a toast with champagne, or a celebratory cigar. _Every_ emotion was muted until it boiled over, and then we were made to feel ashamed of it. Even with Jack, I had difficulties expressing myself. Happiness was a fleeting smile, anger was days of silence without addressing the issue...it wasn’t healthy. He tried, as best he could, to help me be more open, and to some small degree, it worked.  But then,” she gave Kara half a smile, “you came along. Miss Kara Danvers, reporter extraordinaire,” she teased, Kara looking away with a laugh.

“You’ve accepted me at every turn. You let me open up at my own pace but wouldn’t let me hide behind my walls either. I meant it when I said I’ve never had a friend like you before. Or family like you. Our… _relationship_ ,” she said, looking apologetic for using the term, “is comfortable. Mutual. Reciprocal. And I’ve always taken my cues from you for what’s acceptable behavior between friends. I don’t want us to lose that simplicity. If you need more boundaries, I’ll follow your example. But I’ve become so accustomed to the way we behave…”

“We can talk about it. Anything that changes,” Kara said. “I’m not just going to disappear from your life. Like I told you before, I’m not going to stop being friends with you because of this- you mean so much more than that to me.” Lena nodded, giving her a weak smile. “When I talked to Alex, she told me that nothing’s ruined. It’s just going to be different now. But maybe it’ll be better.”


	3. Chapter 3

“So you’re just letting her put up those walls now,” Alex asked, handing Lena a glass of wine. “I thought you wanted to date her.”

“I’m still figuring things out, Alex.” She rolled her eyes when Alex dropped onto the couch beside her, the wine in both of their glasses sloshing around. “There are some days where I want nothing more than to ask her to be with me. And other days,” she swirled her wine before taking a sip, “other days I’m so terrified of the possibility that something will go wrong between us that it paralyzes me. The thought of losing her is unacceptable.”

“And you don’t think she’ll eventually feel the push and pull of that? She can be oblivious, I know, but if there’s anyone she can read well, it’s you.”

“Don’t _you_ think those new boundaries are a good thing, then? If we keep more of a distance from each other, it’ll give me more time to figure things out. Get my head on straight.”

“Or not so straight,” Alex laughed.

“Or not so straight,” she agreed with a fond eye roll.

“You need to talk to other people,” Alex said, nudging her gently. “Whatever you decide about her, you should make other friends.”

“I have her, and you. Winn, James…” She thought for a moment.

“If your friend list is exactly the same as hers, you should look into expanding it.”

“There’s Jess too,” she defended.

“A, unless you two spend time together outside the office and LCorp events, I don’t know how much she counts as a friend, rather than a friendly employee. And b, she and Kara get along just as well as you two do, so even if you two _are_ friends…”

“She’s in Kara’s circle too,” she finished with a groan.

“Exactly.”

“I don’t even know how to make new friends. I never have.” She rolled her head to look at Alex. “How do you do it?”

“What, make new friends?” Lena nodded. “Usually meet them during missions, or training ops. Sometimes they save my life, sometimes I save theirs…”

Lena hit her with a pillow, rolling her eyes.

“That doesn’t help me! Unless I start befriending your agents after all the attempts on my life.” She scoffed. “Though, at that rate, I may end up being the most popular woman in National City.”

“Not like you couldn’t use the good press,” Alex joked.

She hit her with the pillow again.

“You’re right though. I need to figure out how to be okay with us both needing…space.”

“You’ll get there,” she said, patting Lena on the shoulder.

“I don’t even know where ‘there’ is!”

“Of course you do!” She shook her head at Lena’s disbelieving look, counting it out on her hand. “You want to give Kara her space. You want to make new friends who aren’t in Kara’s circle. You want to figure out your feelings for Kara, and if you want to act on them. That’s just three things.”

“That’s four things.”

“Fine, four things. That’s still not a lot. It might seem tough, but you can do it.” She wrapped her arm around Lena’s shoulder comfortingly, Lena letting out a heavy sigh and smirking as she did.

“You Danvers girls and your faith in me….”


	4. Chapter 4

“Ms. Luthor?”

“I’ve told you to call me Lena, Jess.” She didn’t look up from her paperwork, flipping the page. “Even here at work.” Jess cleared her throat, drawing Lena’s attention to the two women standing in the doorway.

“Ms. Arias!” Lena stood, walking around the desk to shake hands with the other woman. “I didn’t think we were expecting you for another week or so. Please, come in.” She turned back to Jess, mouthing a thank you to her as she left.

“Call me Sam, please.”

“Then, you can call me Lena.”

Sam took a seat on the couch, Lena joining her at the coffee table in one of the armchairs. “I know this is a bit of a surprise, but I wanted to see if I could get a bit familiar with everything before I started on Monday. I know things can go into crisis mode without warning, so I’d rather be as prepared as possible. I understand that you might not have the time right now,” she nodded at Lena’s desk, overflowing with files, “but even a simple tour would help me feel a little more ready.”

“Considering half of that is LCorp’s finances that you’ll be taking over soon, I suppose I can spare a few minutes of my day,” she grinned.

* * *

 “Seems like you run a pretty tight ship around here,” Sam said, watching the R&D teams working to implement one of Lena’s suggestions.

“It’s necessary,” Lena said with a nod. “With my family’s reputation, well,” she shrugged. “I’m sure you’re aware.”

“Of course.” She followed Lena back into the hallway. “But your employees are loyal to you- to a higher degree than employees I’ve seen at other companies. They didn’t shut down when we walked in, they kept working, invited you to check their work without fear of you discovering a mistake…it was a little amazing, honestly.”

“Job security and self-managed teams will do that. I’ll admit,” she said, pushing the call button for the elevator, both stepping inside, “it took time to get to this point. I remember when I first took over the company, I couldn’t go anywhere in the building without it getting deathly quiet. I think it helped them to see me working on my own pet projects in the lab, asking for help, allowing them to point out flaws in my work and showing them theirs without making it a reprimand… There were some people who thought I might share at least my brother’s temper, or if not his madness, his xenophobia.” They got off the elevator and turned right, instead of left for Lena’s office.

“I’m sure your relationship with Supergirl has helped your reputation on all of those fronts.” Lena stumbled at the words, quickly catching herself. “Are you okay?”

“Relationship? Supergirl and I, we’re not,” she shook her head, trying to smile. “We talk, of course, she saves my life from my brother’s assassins. And my mother’s. But we’re,” she clasped her hands together and shrugged, “acquaintances? Allies? No real relationship to speak of, other than that.”

“Oh come on,” Sam grinned, “how many times has she saved you, carried you out of danger…I’ve seen the pictures. The way you two look at each other, there’s at least _some_ chemistry there.”

“It’s really not like that,” Lena laughed, hoping her nerves weren’t obvious. “Besides that, I’m not sure this conversation really relates to our working together.” She opened the door in front of them, gesturing her inside, letting it swing back behind them. “Your secretary’s office. Behind that door,” she pointed in front of them, “your own personal office. Everything is set up, aside from your personal effects and your actual work. Jess has already compiled a list of possible secretaries for you to choose from, all prescreened, background checked, and so on.”

Sam looked around, running her hand over the desk in front of her.

“This is a _really_ nice office. My last one,” she said, hopping up to sit on it, “was in the back of the building, basically as far away from the CEO as I could possibly be. I would try to create a budget, prepare our finances, generally do my _job_ , and by the time I got done with it, it was time to present to the board. And, of course, when the CEO would present his plan, it wouldn’t match the budget at all, so I’d have to redo it. I’m _hoping_ that you and I will communicate a little better than he and I did.” She shrugged, gripping the edge of the desk. “Whether that means becoming friends, or just being polite to each other when we have meetings is up to you. That’s,” she shrugged one shoulder again, “what I was trying to do with the whole Supergirl chemistry thing. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable, or overstepped. I’m not very good at this whole friend thing these days.”

“Oh.” Lena looked taken aback. “I didn’t realize- but, of course it’s good for the company, and our productivity and so on if we can at least manage cordiality towards each other.”

“Is…that you agreeing that we should try to be friendly?”

“Yes,” she laughed. “I’m sorry, I’m afraid I’m not very experienced at making friends myself. I’ve been doing better recently, but as you can see, I still have my own missteps.”

“So if I were to ask if we could do lunch today, to get a jumpstart on that too,” she trailed off questioningly.

“Lena?”

Both of their heads turned towards the hallway, Lena smiling brightly when she heard Kara muttering to herself.

“Jess said she was over here…Lena?”

“In here, Kara!” She turned back to Sam as the door swung open, Kara peeking her head in. “I’m afraid I’d have to say no, today. Perhaps tomorrow? And I can introduce you to some of my favorite restaurants close to the office.”

“Sure.”

“Until then, let me just introduce you to my best friend and favorite reporter, Kara Danvers.” She opened the door wider, pulling Kara inside. “Kara, this is Sam. She’s going to be LCorp’s new CFO. She’ll hopefully be lightening my workload considerably, so you won’t have to be reminding me to stop working late at night.”

“Sam Arias,” she said, reaching out to shake Kara’s hand. “I’ve read a few of your LCorp articles. Should I be getting ready for an interview of my own,” she joked.

Kara gave her a strained grin, nodding until she caught Lena’s confused look. “Yeah. Yeah, maybe? We’ll see! It all depends on what my boss wants.”

“Snapper Carr is a piece of work,” Lena told Sam, grasping Kara’s wrist to begin leading her out of the office, Sam following behind them with a knowing smile on her lips. “But that’s a story for another time, Kara and I have a lunch to be getting to. Can we walk you downstairs?”

“I think I’m going to grab that list of secretaries from Jess before I head out, get a jump on things before the week starts. But I’ll see you tomorrow for lunch? Around noon?”

“Of course, just let Jess know so she can remind me.”

The three of them parted ways at the elevator, Sam continuing past it towards Lena’s office, Kara and Lena waiting for the elevator to make it to their floor.

* * *

 Kara rocked back and forth on her heels, hands grasping each other behind her back as the elevator descended, Lena watching her out of the corner of her eye.

Lena turned towards her and she gripped the bar on the side of the elevator, tapping her fingers against it, still avoiding looking in Lena’s direction.

“So,” Lena began, watching Kara tense, “where are we going for lunch today?”

Kara’s shoulders relaxed, and she turned back to Lena with a grin.

* * *

 “…about ready to tear my head off about missed deadlines, when finally, he finds my article! In his _spam folder_!”

“No!”

“Yes!” Kara laughed at Lena’s disbelief. “According to one of the other reporters, he was just tired of having to send back my corrections, so he put me into his filtering. So this entire week,” she said through a mouthful of food, “he hadn’t been getting any of my emails, none of my questions, articles, responses, none of it! He was this close,” she pinched her fingers together, “to firing me when someone reminded him that he’d done that.”

“So, what, he went and checked and all was well again at CatCo for you? I find that hard to believe, all things considered.”

“Well, it wasn’t that easy…He got annoyed at me again, this time for ‘letting it go’, not checking in with him, blah blah blah. It was this whole…thing, in the end, and then he banished me to ‘Find a story, Ponytail, and don’t come back until you do!’”

“Is that what our lunch is today, Ms. Danvers,” she asked teasingly. “Just another attempt at an LCorp exclusive?”

“Pff, no!” She waved her hand dismissively. “If I wanted that-”

“You’d have taken Sam up on her offer for an interview,” she asked, casually running her finger around the rim of her glass.

Kara’s fork bent against her plate with a screech, and she quickly bent it back, laughing nervously.

“I mean, I think I’d still have to get Snapper’s approval- and, she hasn’t even started yet, has she?”

“No, but,” she pointed at Kara with her fork, “when has ‘not even started’ stopped you before?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve had a number of projects that were still in the concept process that you reported on anyways. Prototypes, things that never made it to market, or even to the production phase. But with Sam, you’re suddenly unwilling?”

“You’re getting a little defensive of her,” Kara muttered to her plate, eyes downcast.

“You were acting odd when I introduced you- if I had to guess, I would say jealous.”

Kara continued staring down at her plate, moving the food around without eating any of it. Lena sighed and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms.

“I thought we were supposed to be having an ‘open dialogue’ about our feelings, Kara?”

“Sometimes,” she shrugged one shoulder awkwardly, pushing her glasses further up her face, “I’m just…bad at meeting new people! And, I felt bad, because she was trying to make lunch plans with you, when we already had plans.”

“You are usually the warmest, friendliest person I know, no matter how new they are to you, Kara.” She crossed her arms over her chest, frowning at her. “The most honest, too. Please. What’s your problem with Sam?”

Kara opened her mouth to deny it again when Lena held up her hand.

“Please. The truth.”

“I don’t- I’m just having an off day, and I really did feel bad about interrupting your plans, that’s all.”

“I suppose we’ll try again later,” she said with a frown, dropping enough money to cover both lunches onto the table and stood. “Have a good rest of your day, Kara.”

“Lena…”

She waved a dismissive hand at Kara and headed out of the restaurant, Kara groaning as she watched her go.


	5. Chapter 5

Lena sat at her desk staring at her phone, head in one hand, pen motionless in the other. She watched the little dots appear once again as Kara began to type, only to abruptly disappear again. She’d lost count of how many times she’d seen the dots appear and disappear since their abandoned lunch the day before, without a single message ever coming through.

“Knock knock?” She looked up at the sound of Sam’s voice, smiling tiredly at her as she peeked her head in the doorway. “Ooh. That is _not_ a promising look for my Monday,” she joked, walking inside the office.

“What? Oh,” she shook her head, “no, nothing to do with,” she waved at the stacks of paper in front of her. “But I don’t envy you Monday, either.”

* * *

“So,” Sam said as she inspected her menu, “How’d lunch with your favorite reporter go yesterday?” She glanced up from the menu, at Lena, taking in her frown. “That bad?”

“It,” she blinked hard, clearing the frown from her expression as best she could, “it was fine. Her boss was sending her to the spam filter, blamed her for it, apparently was nearly ready to fire her…Ridiculous, but not totally unheard of for them.”

They both thanked the waiter as she set down their drinks, placing their orders.

“You would think he’d have noticed that before he went off at her,” Sam smiled. “I don’t miss having to do grunt-work. All those late nights at the office working on financial reports, compiling the data for secondary reports to be made into _master reports_ to send up the ladder…” She took a sip of her drink. “I’m not sure they ever did anything more than collect dust, sometimes.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that at LCorp. If it’s important enough to make it into a report on my desk, it’s important enough for me to look over.”

“Glad to hear it.” She kept her eyes trained on her glass. “Can I ask…did I do something to upset Kara? The way you described her during the tour was, you know, bright, bubbly,” she waved her hand, “‘sunshine incarnate’, I think you said at one point. And then she got there and seemed, I don’t know, a little abrasive, somehow.”

Lena froze.

“I know that she’s the only reporter you talk to for LCorp developments, and I really don’t want to ruin that relationship somehow.”

“There’s no relationship to ruin,” she laughed, the emotion not reaching her eyes. “Kara was just, as I said, having a bit of a day because of Mr. Carr. I’m sure the next time you meet will be more relaxed.”

“I thought you two were best friends?”

“We are.”

“But you just said there’s ‘no relationship’. Am I…missing something here?”

“We’re friends, yes, but she and I, we’re not,” she put her hand to her forehead. “No, I’m sorry, I can’t do this today.” She stood, picking up her purse to pay for her second abruptly ending lunch in as many days. “Kara and I aren’t together. We are _friends_ , best friends, and nothing more. I’m going to go. I will see you on Monday.” She turned on her heel to leave, pausing for only a second. “I hope you enjoy your meal.”

* * *

The lights were dim in Lena’s home office, computer illuminating her tired eyes in the darkness. She poured another measure of whiskey and threw it back with a grimace. The balcony doors were open, letting in the breeze, and she sighed when she heard the crack of a cape in the wind.

“Are you coming in or not,” she called, not surprised when the hero walked in, head bowed.

“Hey,” she said quietly.

“Supergirl,” she said stiffly, eyes still fixed on the computer screen.

“Can we talk?”

“I don’t know,” she said, finally looking over at her, “are we actually going to talk this time, or are you going to make it out to be ‘nothing’ again?”

“I’m sorry, you’re right, it was,” she heaved a sigh, running a hand through her hair, “it was about Sam, and I was jealous, but there’s more to it than that. Will you let me explain?”

Lena saved her files and shut down the computer, leading the way out of the room.

“You know where your extra clothes are. I’ll be in the kitchen.”

* * *

Kara walked into the kitchen in her borrowed pajamas, arms wrapped around herself. Lena stood at the kitchen island, leaned over it, cup of coffee in hand.

“Well?”

“I’m not used to doing this, Lena.” She gave her a rueful smile. “Sharing my feelings? Even with Alex, it’s like pulling teeth. For both of us. I needed some time to process things, figure out what I was feeling, what I wanted to say, and how I wanted to say it, without sticking my foot in my mouth. Which, I’ll admit, was harder to do than I thought it would be. Especially considering,” she waved a hand between the two of them, “my feelings. I probably should’ve said that yesterday though. Told you I needed some time before we talked about it.”

Lena walked over, handed her the cup of coffee, and went to fix a second.

“I could be,” she tapped her fingers against the mug, her back still turned to Kara, “amenable to that. Putting off conversations when we need time to think. Because I can understand needing time, Kara. Or even needing to keep certain feelings to yourself. You should be able to have feelings that are private. And, I can understand the difficulty of talking about things like this. My family's no model of emotional stability. But, you lied to me. You’ve never once had an issue meeting new people at my office, but suddenly it’s different with Sam?”

“I was jealous,” she admitted, joining Lena at the island. “It wasn’t just that she was asking you out-”

“Kara, she wasn’t asking me out. She’s my new CFO. She thought us having lunch together might make our working, _professional_ relationship better.”

“Oh. Well, I _thought_ she was asking you out, so, I was jealous of that. Happy that someone else finally recognized how great you are without me having to tell them, but still jealous. And at the same time,” she sighed, “I was jealous of someone else taking up our friend-time.”

“Isn’t that the same thing,” she asked skeptically.

“No, it’s like,” she set down her cup to pace. “Obviously, there was the part of me that was jealous about the possibility of her dating you, right? But at the same time, I was jealous of the fact that she would just get to spend time with you. Getting to know you, in general. Which is stupid, because you and I are already friends, and I already know you, but the idea of,” she wrapped her arms around herself again, “ _sharing_ your time, with someone else was just uncomfortable. Even,” she rolled her eyes at herself, “when you and Alex were hanging out after,” she nodded her head meaningfully, “you know, I was jealous of her. And she’s the one who encouraged me to, to…”

“Ask me out,” Lena finished gently.

“Yes. So me being jealous is ridiculous. But I guess I just got used to, I don’t know, having you all to myself, that I apparently get weird about it when you spend time with other people.”

“Possessiveness isn’t your most attractive quality,” Lena said, leaning away from her with a frown. “I’m your friend, Kara, not your property.”

“No, I know!” She grimaced, rubbing a hand over her forehead. “I don’t think it’s even possessiveness, exactly. How do I even explain this? I’m just used to it always being the two of us. The way it was before. It was part of my routine. Go to work, be Supergirl…hang out with Lena. Or, if it was a weekend, be Supergirl, fight the bad guys, have lunch with Lena, debrief at the DEO, movie night with Lena. Sometimes we’d have game night with everyone else, but you were always my partner then, so,” she shrugged.

“I got used to it being you and me, and then I asked you out, and I think all of my wires got crossed, especially since we’ve just barely started to spend time together again, so it’s coming out in weird ways.” She shook her head. “Bad ways, if I’m being completely honest right now.” She took a deep breath and sighed, looking over at Lena. “I really am sorry. I’m sure that Sam is a perfectly nice person. And if you like her, she and I will probably get along great. I’ll do better in the future to give her a fair chance, and if at some point she really does want me to interview her, I can do that.”

“Thank you for explaining. I really couldn’t understand why you’d act like you did- or, I’d made some assumptions, but I didn’t like any of them. I actually still don’t like your reasoning.” She took a sip of her coffee, staring down at the island. “I can forgive you for not immediately telling me how you were feeling. Like I said, time to process is something we may both need. And, I can somewhat forgive your possessiveness, because it’s not like I haven’t felt the same before. That first time I showed up at your apartment to ask for a meeting with Supergirl,” she laughed, “I saw Alex and just had the thought of ‘why is she here with _my_ friend?’ before realizing I was being ridiculous. But I still feel that way from time to time. ‘Why is James interrupting up our movie night’, or ‘it’s not fair that Winn asked Kara to lunch before I did’. Because not only are you my _best_ friend, at one point, you were my _only_ friend.”

“But I’m not anymore. You’ve got the whole gang of superfriends now. You and Alex still have wine nights sometimes!”

“Yes, but I don’t have the same level of comfort with them as I do you. Not even with Alex.” She looked Kara in the eye, putting one hand over hers. “I’m saying I can understand you _feeling_ defensive over our friendship, especially recently. We’ve only recently begun to spend time together again. But I don’t accept you acting it, when I know that you know better. When I know from my own experience that you don’t _have_ to act on those feelings of jealousy, especially not towards a complete stranger. I forgive you, Kara. But actions speak louder than words. You say that next time you meet with Sam, it’ll be better?” Kara nodded. “Show me. Because I hated seeing you like that, and not feeling like I could talk to you.”

“I promise.”

* * *

Lena stood in the elevator to go to her office, wearily watching the numbers go up. Kara hadn’t left until early in the morning, both of them still trying to find their footing in their friendship again. She closed her eyes and sighed heavily, hoping for an easier day.

She heard the ding of the elevator doors opening and stepped out, already regretting not calling in for the day. Her phone chimed in her pocket and she pulled it out with a tired grin, Kara’s name appearing on the screen. She swiped to look at it, only to spot movement to her right.

“Hello?” She glanced down the hall towards her own office, coming to a decision. “Who’s there?”

She followed the person down the hallway, hand already wrapped around the taser in her bag.

“No one’s authorized to be up here right now,” she called out loudly, cursing internally when she saw Sam’s office door swing shut. “I’m going to have Jess double security,” she muttered to herself. “Triple it, even.”

Taser in hand, finger on the trigger, she shoved open the door and aimed.


	6. Chapter 6

“Sam?”

“Lena?”

She spotted the weapon in Lena’s hand and raised her hands slowly.

“I know our lunch didn’t go as well as we hoped, but this seems a little extreme,” she laughed nervously, moving away to put distance between them.

“What?” She followed Sam’s gaze and immediately lowered it, shoving it back into her bag. “No, no, Sam, I’m sorry. I swear, this isn’t what it looked like. I just saw someone- you, I suppose- walking down the hallway at,” she checked her watch, “nearly seven in the morning, and even Jess doesn’t get here so early most days.”

Sam blinked at her, crossing her arms.

“So you thought…”

“That you were an intruder, and that someone may have been attempting to booby trap your office. Or,” she shrugged, “had gotten lost on the way to booby trapping my office and found yours instead. It’s one turn, and some of the assassins they’ve sent after me have been rather inept.”

“Don’t you have security for that kind of stuff,” she asked faintly, leaning back against the deck. “I mean, for you to not dive in headfirst after danger?”

“Well, yes,” she admitted, “but by the time they got up here, it’s entirely possible that the intruder would be gone. Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands.”

“Right. Okay. I guess this is why Supergirl’s over so often,” she muttered under her breath. She shook her head, trying to figure out what to say. “Well. As you can see, I’m not an intruder, and I’m…grateful that you’d try to protect me from anyone who tried to sneak into my office? Especially after yesterday.” Her shoulders bowed in and she lowered her head. “I need to apologize for that, by the way. And the day before. I think I’ve been making some assumptions about you that I shouldn’t have been, implying some things accidentally…Generally making you uncomfortable. Whatever it is between you and Kara,” she shrugged a shoulder, “that’s your business, and I’m sorry.”

“What? No. No no no, that’s, I mean,” she sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of her nose. “That’s nothing to do with you, I promise. Our conversation just touched on something that’s…still fresh, to put it simply. You couldn’t have known. Can we try lunch again? You can tell me what you mean about ‘making assumptions’ and I can apologize for snapping at you.”

Sam hesitated, frowning.

“Please?”

“I guess I’ll see you for lunch then.”

* * *

 “I’m sorry if you were expecting us to go out for lunch,” Lena said, setting the bags of food down on her coffee table, “but I wanted this to be a more…private conversation.”

“I don’t mind,” Sam said, already peeking into the boxes. “It looks like you got a bit of everything.”

“I think Jess thought Kara was joining me for lunch today,” she said with a sad smile. “These are all her favorites.”

Sam sat back on the couch, looking at her sympathetically. “Did you two break-” she shook her head, “have a fight?”

“We didn’t break up,” she laughed quietly. “We never got together in the first place.” She put her head in her hands, dragging her fingers through her hair. “Is that the assumption you were talking before? Kara and I being-”

“The way you talked about her, the way she writes about you…Not to mention my gaydar went off for both of you.”

“Well, you’re not _wrong_.”

“And now I’m confused. I thought—I’m not even sure what I thought, at this point. Other than that you were gay, maybe? And then I made you uncomfortable, talking about your relationships with Supergirl and Kara, and you started making a face,” she pointed at Lena’s frown, “that face right there, so I thought I was wrong.”

“Supergirl and I—like I said, we’re colleagues. Nothing more. Kara and I are more complicated.” She picked up a fork and a box of potstickers, still frowning. “We’re both—I mean, she and I…”

“Take your time,” Sam said patiently, taking some food. “It took a while for me to come to terms with myself.”

She pursed her lips.

“What do you know about my mother?”

“The news doesn’t say anything flattering about her,” Sam replied cautiously between bites.

“They’re generally negative about her, yes. Justifiably, of course. As it turns out, she’s not only extremely xenophobic, but homophobic as well.” She scoffed. “I learned _that_ quickly at age 13, and never forgot it. It was easier to,” she trailed off, her expression stormy.

“Hide that part of yourself away?” Lena gave a sharp nod, eyes shining. “My mother was the same way. She made it clear when I was 14 that being ‘that way’ was unacceptable. A few years after that, I got pregnant, and apparently that wasn’t acceptable either.”

“Lillian would’ve kicked me out,” Lena muttered.

“She and my mom might’ve gotten along, then. I wouldn’t give Ruby up for the world, though. You and Kara though?”

“We’re friends. Best friends. She’s given me the confidence to be myself again. You’re probably the fifth person I’ve come out to, even if I haven’t explicitly said the words to anyone _but_ her. Even years later, Lillian’s got her claws into me.” She set the box down, crossing her arms and closing her eyes tightly. “I’m bisexual. I like men and women.”

“I’m proud of you,” Sam replied with a warm smile.

“Look at me,” Lena laughed, wiping away a stray tear, “I’m telling you all of these things and we barely know each other.”

“It’s the cool-mom vibe I give off,” she said confidently. “It makes me very approachable.” Lena snorted, covering her mouth.

“What about Kara though,” Sam asked curiously, “I really did think that you two were together. Is she, you know,” she lowered her voice, “straight?”

“No,” she shook her head. “We—a few months ago, she asked me out. We’d just come out to each other, and we’ve been very close for a long time, but until recently, she was probably my _only_ friend. She introduced me to some of her other friends, and we’ve all gotten closer, but at this point, my closest confidante is her older sister, and they talk to each other about,” she huffed out a laugh, “everything. So all of my friends were her friends first, and it seems like someone is trying to kill me every other month.”

“And you’re not willing to take the risk of losing all of that,” she said understandingly.

“Exactly.” She walked over to her liquor cabinet, pouring herself a glass and offering one to Sam. “When Kara and I argue, I only really have Alex to talk to- her sister. She’s been understanding so far, but I can’t imagine that she’d be okay being our main confidante all the time, moving forward.”

“I can somewhat relate. At this point, my closest friend is Ruby and she’s my daughter, and a _teenager_. Sometimes I just want to go home, have a glass of wine with someone, and complain about my day, but somehow I don’t think that’s an ideal ‘mom’ behavior. Even before we moved here, my ‘socializing’ was limited to corporate outings,” she made a sour face, “or, the rare night out by myself when Ruby would stay over at a friend’s. Not that anything ever came of that.”

“Ruby’s father isn’t in the picture then?”

“He wasn’t interested in being a teen dad.” She looked down at the glass in her hands, smiling wryly. “I’m not sure he would’ve been good for Ruby and I to be around anyways. I haven’t really been in the dating scene since having Ruby, and the times I’ve tried,” she glanced up, “let’s just say that telling people you have a kid doesn’t exactly help your prospects, no matter _how_ good your gaydar.”

“So you’re,” she waved her glass at Sam, not sure how exactly to phrase her question.

“I’m bi too,” she confirmed. “But like I said before, between Ruby and work, I haven’t had time to date much.”

“Assassination attempts and work,” Lena toasted her glass at Sam, “I know how it is.”

“I’ll at least be taking some of the workload off your hands,” she said. “Would you consider it? You and Kara, I mean?”

Lena sat back down opposite her, one hand covering her face, the other still wrapped around her glass.

“Maybe? The thought of losing her terrifies me though. I don’t know what I would do if I did.”


	7. Chapter 7

“Hey.” Alex nudged at Kara with her shoulder, the tv droning on in front of them. “Are we having a sister night or are you just going to stare at your phone the whole time?”

“Sister night,” Kara said, setting her phone face down on the couch. She picked up the pizza and took a bite, only to pick her phone back up a second later.

“Seriously?” Alex snatched the phone from an unsuspecting Kara’s hand, ignoring her protests as she typed in the passcode.

“How do you even know—”

“5362,” Alex said flatly, rolling her eyes at Kara’s blush. “I don’t think you could be more obvious.” Kara’s IMs appeared on the screen, her message to Lena asking her to have lunch at the bottom with the read receipt right below. “She didn’t answer? It’s,” she checked the time, “past 6. Over twelve hours without responding to you?”

“She’s fine.” She snatched the phone back, shoving it between the couch cushion and armrest. “I…listened in, just to make sure. We just had a bit of a disagreement a few days ago, and I guess she wants a bit of space.”

“Disagreement?” She shut off the tv, turning to face her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because,” Kara said, looking away and taking a big bite of pizza.

“That’s not an answer. No,” she held up a finger, stalling Kara’s attempt at a response. “Finish the bite, _then_ talk. I don’t need to see what’s in your mouth.” Kara slowed her chewing to a snail’s pace and Alex snorted at her stalling. “You could be done eating all three boxes of pizzas faster than I could blink, Kara, which I _know_ because you’ve done it before. And,” she leaned back into the couch, dropping her feet onto the coffee table, “I’ve got all night.”

“I was being stupid,” Kara mumbled, swallowing the bite. “Lena got a new CFO, and they’re being… _friendly_ , and I got jealous.” Alex opened her mouth and Kara cut her off. “It was stupid, I know, it’s good that she’s making friends, but we’ve just started hanging out again, and I’m still not over my crush, even though I know I don’t have a chance with her…” She hung her head, raking her fingers through her hair. “I’m trying to get over her, trying to still be her friend, but I don’t know how to do that. I was _rude_ to her new friend, offended Lena, probably made Sam uncomfortable, and, I’m just _bad_ at this friend thing right now.”

“Hey.” Alex grasped her shoulder. “There’s no right or wrong way to do this. You two need to figure it out together. Did you already apologize?”

“Yeah.” She leaned into Alex’s hold, resting heavily against her shoulder. “She says she forgives me.”

“Both of them?” Kara tensed against her, and Alex pinched at her arm. “Lena’s feelings aren’t the only ones that matter if you were rude to someone else,” she said sternly.

“Wouldn’t it be weird, me going in to apologize to her though? I mean, we don’t even know each other. She might not even have noticed that I was being rude!”

“And if she did?”

Kara groaned, rolling back to her side of the couch to grab her plate again.

“Then I guess I need to be extra nice to her when I interview her next week.”

* * *

 ** _A. Danvers:_ ** _r u 2 good?_

 **_Lena:_ ** _Some people say I’m the best._

 **_A. Danvers:_ ** _srsly. U and Kara?_

 **_Lena:_ ** _It’s painful to read your texts. Call?_

* * *

“I wondered when I was going to hear from you about this, honestly,” she said, ushering Alex into her apartment.

“ _This_ being…”

“Don’t fish for information, Alex.” She held up a bottle of wine for Alex’s approval. “How long did it take for her to walk you through the ‘two kinds of jealousy’?”

“The what now?”

“Two kinds of jealousy? Didn’t she tell you?”

“She told me she was, and I quote, ‘stupid’, something to do with your brand-new CFO, you forgave her, blah, blah, blah. So I ask again; Are you two good?”

“Wait, no, I thought she’d talked to you about this?”

“I didn’t hear about it until earlier today, honestly. Was it that bad?”

“She,” Lena bit at her lip, “she wasn’t outright hostile to Sam, but given how friendly Kara usually is, it was disconcerting. She seemed tense and uncomfortable the whole time, which was only a few minutes, but still. I don’t think she’s ever walked away from meeting a new LCorp employee without making friends with them before.”

“Did she notice?”

“You mean Sam?” Alex nodded. “Given the fact that she asked if she’d done something to annoy Kara when we had lunch the next day, I’d say so.”

“So her interview’s going to go _great_ ,” she said sardonically.

“What interview?”

“Apparently after Sam’s had a little bit of time to ‘settle in’, Kara wants to take your suggestion to interview her.”

“She said that?”

“No.” She rolled her eyes at Lena’s expectant look. “What she _actually_ said was more like, ‘I was so terrible, and Lena’s the best, and I need to be a better friend to her!’, and then about how you ‘hinted’ at lunch that she should interview Sam. How is your new CFO, anyways? Should I keep a unit on standby in case she’s one of your brother’s moles?”

“I recruited her from one of the more ‘green’ companies that Lex refused to touch, even after he went mad.” She paused, glass of wine halfway to her mouth. “What has my life become that I seriously considered that offer?”

“A routine disaster?”

“Something like that.” She swirled the wine in her glass. “I think- I’m _hoping_ that Sam and I will be able to build something of a friendship. It would be nice to have another person to talk to at work.”

“And outside of work?”

“We’ll just have to see.”


	8. Chapter 8

“Ms. Arias?” Kara knocked on the doorframe, the secretary’s desk still sitting empty.

“Ms. Danvers?” Sam turned to Kara from her filing cabinet, giving her a guarded smile. “Wrong turn on the way to Lena’s? It’s,” she pointed back down the hallway, “just down that way.”

“No, I know. We’re planning on having lunch later, but,” she held up the recorder. “I was hoping you’d be willing to give me that interview we talked about before?”

“You didn’t seem very eager about it before.” She sat down behind her desk, pointing at the chairs in front of her desk for Kara sit as well. “Did your boss okay it after all?”

“He, um,” she played with her fingers, giving a sheepish shrug, “he wondered why I wasn’t already on it, actually. Look,” she met Sam’s eye, “I’m sorry. About last time. I was rude to you, I…wasn’t feeling my best, had a rough day at my job, really needed some time with my best friend-” She put a hand to her forehead, looking ashamed. “None of that excuses it, I just wanted to explain…” She shook her head, looking at Sam resolutely. “I was rude to you, and I’m sorry.”

 “And there’s the rambling Lena mentioned,” Sam said, cracking a grin.

“Wha-what?”

“She told me that whenever you’re passionate about something, or sincere, you tend to ramble a bit.” She relaxed back into her chair. “So, thank you. Apology accepted. Now, about that interview…”

* * *

“…so things are a bit stressful for me right now, trying to learn the lay of the land,” Sam continued, holding the door open for Kara as they walked out of her office, a file in hand. “Both at the office and at home. All the paperwork here is organized, thankfully- Lena somehow never fell behind with _it_ , or her own work-”

“That’s because she used to be here until midnight some nights!”

Sam laughed as they walked down the hall towards Lena’s office.

“That would definitely explain it. Her and Jess seem to be able to keep this place running singlehandedly- Jess is pulling double duty right now until my new secretary gets in, she had a family emergency come up right after we hired her…and I still haven’t been able to find an emergency sitter for my daughter, in case something comes up and I have to run out on a business trip on short notice. I know Lena probably wouldn’t do that now, but…”

“Always better to be prepared,” Kara agreed, holding the door open for Sam this time. “I still have the numbers for a few good sitters and nannies from when I was Ms. Grant’s secretary. I could email them to you, if you wanted?”

“That would be amazing Kara, thank you.”

“Ms. Luthor’s going to be a few more minutes for lunch, Kara.” She turned to Sam, “I think she was waiting on a file from you, though,” Jess said, addressing Sam.

“I’ve got it right here. Think she’d mind if I went in?”

“Go right ahead.”

* * *

“I’m almost ready for lunch,” Lena said distractedly. “Just give me a few more moments…”

“Jess said you might need this.” She slid the folder onto Lena’s desk, laughing at Lena’s startled jump.

“Sam! I thought you were Jess, or Kara.”

“No, but speaking of, guess who’s sitting out there with Jess and decided to get an interview with me after all…”

“She went to talk to you?”

“Talk to me, interview me, apologize to me,” she nodded. “The whole thing.”

“I didn’t realize Alex was being serious…How’d it go? Be honest, please.”

“Let’s just say I definitely understand why you give her exclusives,” she said, giving Lena a playful wink.

“Sam, really?” She laughed. “So it was okay? _She_ was okay?”

“She was great. She’s very sweet, so I can see why you have a crush on-”

“No, no, no, not here.” Lena blushed, cutting her off with a sharp gesture. “We’re not talking about this right now. We can talk…later. I’m planning on staying late tonight, so maybe then?”

“I have to pick up Ruby from school,” she said regretfully. “How about you come over after dinner, and we can chat then?”

“Are you sure,” she asked, twisting her hands together, “I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“You definitely wouldn’t be. Remember, we’re trying to be friends here, right?”

“Right, of course.”

They walked out of the office, Kara talking rapidly to Jess with bright red cheeks.

“Is she okay,” Sam asked Lena softly, looking between Kara’s fast-moving hands and Jess’ wide eyed and worried face.

“She’s…fine, just a little excitable sometimes. I told her she could pick lunch today, so that’s probably it.”

“Right,” she said skeptically. “Well, I guess I’ll see you after lunch? We can figure out a good time for us to talk tonight then.”

“Of course.”

* * *

Lena pulled Kara away from Jess’ desk to the elevator, promising to bring back a plate for her when they were done.

The three women stepped into the elevator, Lena mentally preparing herself for Kara’s inevitable questions, Sam looking between Kara and Lena with amusement, and Kara practically vibrating with anticipation, glancing hopefully at Lena and then away again.

“You seem excited.”

“Hm?” Kara glanced at Sam, and then blushed hard, giving a few jerky nods. “Yeah, yeah, you know, lunch. My favorite meal of the day!”

“Right,” she laughed, sharing a look with Lena. “Well, you two have fun with _that_ ,” she said, “and I’ll see you later.”

They headed out of the building, Sam heading for the street crossing, Kara leading the way to one of their usual lunch spots, still radiating energy.

* * *

“So,” Kara began after the waiter had taken their drink orders.

“So,” Lena replied, still staring at the menu, determined not to begin the conversation Kara was fishing for.

“I kind of couldn’t help but overhear you and Sam’s conversation when you two were in your office…”

“I didn’t realize you were coming by to interview her this week,” she deflected, heart pounding hard with the confirmation of Kara’s accidental eavesdropping.

“Well, yeah, you’d suggested it, and I was rude to her last time. I didn’t want to make things harder between the two of you, wanted to give her a little bit of time to settle in. She seems really nice.”

“She is. Having her around has lightened my workload quite a bit. Jess seems thrilled that I’m delegating more.”

“Have you two been talking more often?”

“Well, it’s only been a week, but we usually find some time for a chat before she leaves to pick up her daughter.”

“And…you’re going over to her house tonight to talk about your crush-”

“Kara, please.” She set her menu down, deciding to bite the bullet. “Whatever you heard, it’s- I don’t want to talk about it right now. I _can’t_ talk about it right now.”

“With me.”

“What?”

“You mean you can’t talk about it with me, your best friend. What happened to last week’s ‘open dialogue’ conversation?”

“I need time to,” she put her hand to her forehead, “process. To think things through, like you did, when I introduced you to Sam.”

“And you’d rather talk to her than me?” She crossed her arms, staring Lena down across the table.

“Kara…” She reached out a hand to take Kara’s, letting out a sigh of relief when she allowed it, their fingers entwining on the table. “You are my best friend, and nothing and no one will change that. I’m…not denying what you heard Sam say. I’m also not denying that I have… _feelings_.” She felt Kara gently rub her thumb across her knuckles. “But that doesn’t mean- I don’t know how to-” she shook her head. “This is why I need to talk with Sam about it. Nothing’s clear to me right now. I’m terrified of the possibilities, of saying the wrong thing and losing you.”

“You wouldn’t! You won’t!”

“Even so. I don’t want to risk it. And I need to talk to Sam- someone outside the situation entirely- so I can figure things out. So that I’m not giving you false hope, or dragging my indecision out long enough for you to get tired of it all. I wasn’t even going to tell you anything unless I’d come to a decision, because I don’t want to hurt you.”

They sat there holding hands for a few moments, Lena holding her breath for Kara’s response.

“No matter what you decide, you’re still my friend,” Kara said softly. “My best friend.” She squeezed her hand comfortingly. “If you change your mind- if you wanted to talk things out with me instead, we could. I can’t promise I’d be unbiased,” she laughed, “but we could try.”

“Thank you.”

* * *

“…must have sat on my phone or something and accidentally called her, because she overheard us talking about her, and then _someone_ talking about my crush.”

“Oh no, what’d she say? I’m sorry, if I’d known…”

Lena waved off her apology.

“How could you? It’s fine, anyways, we talked about it a little bit- enough for me to admit that, yes, I have feelings for her, but that I’m still not sure about acting on them, and I need to think things out. She was hurt, I think, that I was coming over to talk to you about this, instead of confiding in her like I usually do, but she understood in the end. After the waiter came back, lunch was…normal? Almost the way it used to be, before we took our break from each other.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“Yes, of course, it was relaxing, and she made me laugh like she always did before, tried to fight me for the check at the end of things, and when I wouldn’t let her pay, bought Jess’ meal herself…” She smiled at the memory.

“She obviously makes you happy.”

“She does,” she said fondly.

“Remind me what’s stopping you from being happy _with her_ , then?”

“You mean aside from the fact that I’m an insecure, overachieving workaholic who can basically set my watch by my monthly assassination attempts and don’t exactly have the time to figure out how to have a girlfriend, let alone be a good one myself?”

“Okay, firstly- the workaholic thing is something that you can change, and I’m here to help with that. Once I get used to the system, I’ll probably be cutting your workload in half, and you can leave work before,” she checked her watch, “10pm.  “Secondly, the girlfriend thing is probably something that’ll take care of itself. You told me how you two used to act around each other, and the rumor mill at LCorp isn’t quiet about it either…it sounded to me like all you were missing was the physical side and the title.”

“Of course, and the insecurities and assassins are just minor afterthoughts, right?”

“Honestly? Given how long you two have been friends…”

“People- including my family- regularly try to kill me, and that’s a minor concern to you, really?”

“Obviously it would be better and easier if they _weren’t_ , but, Kara already knows about that, right? She’d be in no more danger dating you than she is just being your friend!” Lena opened her mouth, only for Sam to cut her off, “That doesn’t mean for you to stop being her friend, it’s just an observation. She knows the risks of being associated with you, and she’s still around.”

“What if she got tired of me? Of all of that, having to deal with everything that comes with dating a Luthor? The reputation, the press conferences, the galas, the xenophobes and alien supporters who _both_ try to attack me…”

“Again, she already knows that stuff. She’s been through it with you. Every time the press puts out an article about you, she’s standing somewhere in the background. At least if you two were together, you could give each other more support. Help each other feel safer.”

“You sound just like Alex, you know that? She told me that we were already dealing with each other’s ‘baggage’, that Kara sees my insecurities and lo-,” she choked on the word, “ _cares_ about me anyways.”

“See, and I haven’t even known you for a week!”

“There’s also the fact that nearly all of my friends are her friends, so if something happened, I was afraid I’d be alone,” she said lowly.

“You _were_ afraid? What changed?”

“I…it’s been on my mind since she asked me out, what my life would be like without her. And now, I’m realizing that, even when we were taking our space from each other…I didn’t lose everyone.” She looked up, eyes wide with the realization. “Alex made sure to check in with me every week or so. James and I would meet for coffee in the morning on weekends we both had to work, and talk shop, or just reminisce about Metropolis. Whenever Winn got the chance, he’d come by to work on personal projects with me, or convince me to play video games in the conference room. I can’t believe I didn’t realize it until now.”

“Wait, is that why there’s four different consoles in the supply cabinet? That explains so much,” she said to herself

“And none of them brought up Kara unless I did first,” she said in wonderment. “None of them pressured me, or made me feel bad for turning her down, or not seeing her.”

“Which is good,” she agreed, “so what are you thinking here?”

“That maybe I can do this, maybe she and I could- but not yet.”

“Wait, no, why?” The smile dropped from her face. “I thought you’d just talked yourself into-”

“I did, and I want to, but I still don’t have the time yet-”

“You’re kidding me.” She frowned. “If you had time to be friends before, why would this be any different?”

“I’d…want to spend more time with her now, if we do this. Have us figure things out together, without having to worry about cutting things short because of encroaching deadlines, or having to miss out on, on a _date_ with her because of too much paperwork.”

“You know she’d probably understand. She has to know how busy your job keeps you.”

“Of course she does, of course she _would_ , but this is about me. Wanting to spend time with her. I’ve been terrified this whole time of all the ways this could go wrong…”

“What changed?”

“Time?” She shrugged. “Things finally slotting into place, seeing that she wouldn’t run from me at the first sign of trouble? I already knew she wouldn’t, as a friend, but I couldn’t be sure in a relationship context. Maybe it’s talking things out with someone who _isn’t_ her overprotective older sister and getting an outside opinion from someone who’s not personally invested in her. It could be just the fact that now she knows I have feelings for her too, so I can’t just ignore it anymore.”

“But you’re not going to do anything about it _yet_ ,” she clarified.

“Not yet.” She bit her lip thoughtfully. “I need to plan.” She stood from the table and clasped Sam’s shoulder. “Thank you.”


	9. Chapter 9

“And that is the last of LCorp’s finances off your hands,” Sam said, confirming the email was in her inbox. “You are _officially_ a free woman.”

“And it only took you how long,” Lena asked playfully.

“Hey. I will have you know that LCorp’s file redundancy features, while definitely useful for security purposes, made it take three times as long for me to learn the system as it would have without them.” She dropped into the chair, letting it spin around once before looking meaningfully at Lena. “It’s been over a month now, almost two.”

“Please don’t ask,” she pleaded.

“What do you have planned for sweeping Kara off her feet,” Sam asked anyways, ignoring the sour look on Lena’s face.

“I don’t know, nothing seems right! We’re back to game nights and movie nights, back into all of our old routines…I’d almost be afraid that she’d changed her mind and wanted to just stay friends if not for the fact that I recognize the way she looks at me when she thinks I’m not paying attention.”

“Which is how, exactly?”

“The same way I look at her. Adoration, affection, admiration…”

“Alliteration to try to distract me…Come on. It doesn’t have to be anything big or elaborate, you just need to let her know how you feel.”

“You say that like it’s so easy!”

“You already know how she feels about you. Which is usually the hardest part. All you need to do is say the words. You don’t even need to do that, you could just hold her hand and if she asks if it means what she thinks it does, you agree. Or just kiss her and see where things go from there!”

* * *

Lena paced outside of Kara’s apartment door, heels clicking as she walked back and forth, staring at the door each time she passed it.

The door opened before she could get the courage to knock.

“Lena?”

“Kara!”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, of course, I’m fine. How about you?”

Kara squinted at her through tired eyes, glancing down at her phone screen.

“It’s almost midnight, Lena. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I woke you, I’m sorry. I- when you’re available, let me know, I have something I want to talk to you about, but it can wait a little longer.” Kara’s hand closed gently around her wrist as she began to walk away.

“Hey. If it’s important for you to come over at midnight, it’s important enough for me to listen right now. Okay?”

“Okay,” she said quietly.

Kara’s hand slid down into Lena’s, their fingers intertwining as Kara pulled her into the apartment, blearily walking toward the kitchen.

“Do you want coffee or something? I think I’ve still got some tea that Alex brought over.”

“No, I just, Kara, we need to talk.”

The drowsiness faded from Kara as she took in Lena’s seriousness.

“Did something happen?”

“Can we sit?”

They sat on the couch, still holding hands, Lena’s clasped between both of Kara’s.

“I was going to wait until tomorrow, invite you out to brunch or something, talk things out then, but as I was driving home, I realized that if I didn’t do it now, I would probably not have the courage to later.”

“Do what?”

“You heard me talking with Sam a few weeks ago,” she said, turning to face Kara. “About having a crush on you?”

“Oh.” Her eyes went wide with realization. “Oh this is _that_ talk!”

“I hope that’s okay, I know we haven’t spoken of it since that day, but…”

“You’ve figured things out?” Lena nodded. “Whatever you’ve decided, just remember that I’ll be here for you, no matter what.”

“I’m sorry it took me so long.”

“You don’t need to apologize for anything, Lena.”

“But I do. I’ve had a crush on you since,” she laughed at herself, “probably since that first gala I invited you to. You were my only friend at the time, and too good to be true- I thought, ‘she must have an angle, somewhere’, and then you kept proving me wrong. Being a better person, a better _friend_ than I thought I’d deserved. We kept getting closer, and at some point, I became too afraid to risk our friendship. I’m a pessimist by nature, and all I could think about was what could go wrong. What I could lose.”

Kara moved closer to her on the couch, slowly wrapping an arm around her shoulder, her other hand going to rest on Lena’s knee.

“And then they did. You asked me on a date, and every last nightmare scenario passed through my head, the things that could happen if Lex or Lillian found out about us, or if their minions attacked us, and I panicked and said no. After that, I thought ‘surely she’s done with me now, they all are’. I thought I’d be alone again.”

“Never,” Kara said, leaning her forehead against Lena’s.

“I realized that. Eventually. Just had to pull my head out of my-”

“Lena!” Kara snorted, laughing into her neck.

“It’s true! Kara,” she waited for her to look up, smiling at the other woman’s continued giggles. “I don’t know how good I’ll be at having a relationship. But with you, I want to try. Be with me?”

“Lena,” she said softly, her hand moving to cup her cheek. “Of course I will.”

They leaned into each other slowly, lips meeting gently.

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve got Tumblr (@sterling-jay) and Twitter (@sterling__jay, double underscore), feel free to come by and say hello!


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